Item: UKG Pro
Rating: 9
Author: Andrew Gagnon, CPA

Support Rating

I would rate the overall support to be average to above average.

You are assigned an account rep that you can meet with either weekly or bi-weekly via the phone to discuss any pending issues or concerns. This is especially useful during the implementation phase and is helpful when new software or guidance is released.

That being said, the help desk system can be cumbersome and you can sometimes get the feeling that the person handling your claim is more interested in closing the ticket than fully explaining the solution.

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

UltiPro is being used as our sole payroll processing software across the whole organization. We use it for multiple pay groups including salaried, hourly employees. We also use it for our research staff who need to allocate time and effort to grants. This allows us to easily track and report time and effort spent on grant funding.

UltiPro allows the organization as a whole to have a single product solution for our timekeeping and reporting needs.

Pros and Cons

Reporting is a significant strength of UltiPro. Users can have an UltiPro expert create custom "standard" reports for specific needs. UltiPro also offers custom reporting which allows advanced users to create their own reports showing any field that information is recorded in UltiPro.
The software is extremely user friendly and offers a workflow approach to processing payroll. This allows users to follow predefined steps to process payroll and ensure that nothing is missed in between. There are often "guided tour" videos in the section you are working in that can provide useful insight on how to use that feature.
The software is flexible in how information is downloaded and recorded in the general ledger. Based on the group that is being processed (hourly vs salary vs grant) you can have the software create a report that can be uploaded into the general ledger using your existing account structure.

While there are alot of advanced features and updated content, I sometimes feel features are pushed out but haven't been 100% tested and vetted by UltiPro staff. This can sometimes result in having a question about a new product that the product manager can't immediately answer.
We have experienced issues from time to time which typically can be resolved. Examples include a loan on an employees 401K stopping one payment to soon. Thankfully, UltiPro is generally pretty good about researching and assisting with those problems to resolve.
If you do run into an issue you will be required to use a help desk type system. It feels like UltiPro customer service is incentivized to close tickets as quickly as possible. While typically a good thing, this can sometimes result in issues not being fully resolved when a ticket is closed.
We did have issues with user access rights being changed without our knowledge. This seemed to happen when new functionality was released and it would be made available to all employees regardless of if we wanted it enabled. There didn't seem to be an audit trail to determine who or how it was being changed but we were assured that they are working on it.

Training Types Used

Online training
Self-taught

Online Training

UltiPro has ALOT of webinar type classes available for users to take on their own time. The sessions are also grouped into user specific roles. This allows HR to focus on HR related training and Payroll to focus on payroll related training.

Likelihood to Recommend

UltiPro feels like an appropriate payroll system for mid-large scale companies that may have different paygroups and different types of schedules/employees.

I am not sure if UltiPro would be the most cost effective option in either extremely small and simple operations or extremely larger and complicated ones. I would define our operation as a mid scale operation with standard not for profit requirements as it relates to payroll.

UltiPro review from a major cultural institution from a payroll / accounting perspective

Overall Satisfaction with UltiPro